ST. LOUIS – Days are getting shorter, but one bonus is more darkness for observing all the things visible in our night sky this fall, from northern lights to comets and planets.
Thursday night, we saw a wonderful display of colors for the second time this year. Experts say that this has to do with the part of the solar cycle we’re in right now; we are at solar max.
“So we are at the peak of the kind of activity that leads to the auroras, and we just ultimately got lucky,” Eric Gustafson, the senior educator at the James S. McDonnell Planetarium, said.
In the coming nights, a comet called C/2023 A3 will be visible shortly after sunset, perhaps even with the naked eye.
“Comets are fickle things. Anyone that’s ever tried to view a comet before its rare behaves exactly as predicted. It all depends on things like the amount of dust it’s putting out as it gets closer to the sun,” Gustafson said.
If there’s enough dust, it could benefit us and make it a naked eye target. Otherwise, you’ll need binoculars.
“All you have to do is look west after sunset from about the 12th to the 20th of October, and you’ll see what kind of looks like a fuzzy little ball, and if it gets dark enough, you might see a tail stretching behind it,” he said.
Seeing the tail will all depend on how much dust it’s putting out, and this sight in the nighttime sky is fairly uncommon with its brightness.
“Comets are not rare objects by any means. Typically, you do need a telescope to see them. Every once in a while, we get some decent naked eye or binocular targets. Last one from St. Louis was in 2020,” Gustafson said. “This one is probably the brightest of the 21st century that we’ve had a chance to see.”
So make sure to look west after sunset in the coming nights when the sky is clear, and hopefully you’ll witness a great show.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call it a comet of a lifetime, but this is probably one of the better comets people will have a chance to see in the foreseeable future,” Gustafson said.
